Plymouth
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2007) |
| Plymouth | |
|---|---|
| File:PlymouthCoatArms.jpg Arms of Plymouth City Council | |
| Population | Expression error: "246,100 (2005 est.)" must be numeric |
| OS grid reference | SX475538 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | PLYMOUTH |
| Postcode district | PL1-9 |
| Dialling code | 01752 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | http://www.plymouth.gov.uk |
Plymouth (pronounced /ˈplɪməθ/) is a city of 243,795 inhabitants (2001 census) in the county of Devon in South West England. It is situated at the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar and overlooks one of Europe's largest natural harbours, Plymouth Sound. The city is large in geographical area because of the building of many postwar satellite housing estates and the absorption of Plympton and Plymstock in the 1960s.
The city has a rich maritime past and was once one of the most important Royal Navy bases in the United Kingdom, making the city a prime target of the Luftwaffe during World War II. After extensive destruction to the city in the Blitz of 1941, Plymouth was rebuilt under the guidance of architect Patrick Abercrombie. It is still home to the largest naval base in Western Europe[1].
Important locations in the city include The Royal Citadel, Devonport Royal Dockyard and The Barbican from which the Pilgrims finally left for the New World in 1620. The University of Plymouth with thirty thousand students is the fourth largest in the UK.
Plymouth people are known as Plymothians or less formally as Janners.
The motto of the city council is Turris fortissima est nomen Jehova (The strongest tower is God's name).
History
The earliest known settlement on the area now occupied by Plymouth is at Mount Batten. It dates from the late Bronze Age, and was later an Iron Age trading port.[2] It is thought that[who?] tin was brought here from Dartmoor via the Plym and traded with the Phoenicians. As part of the Roman Empire this port continued to trade tin along with cattle and hides but was later overshadowed by the rise of the fishing village of Sutton opposite, whose name means south town.
At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) the manor of Sutton was held by the King, but Henry I granted it to the Valletort family of nearby Trematon Castle. The Valletorts in turn granted parts to the Augustinian priory at Plympton, a larger and older settlement than Plymouth, at the head of the tidal estuary of the River Plym. That part of the town owned by Plympton Priory was granted a market charter in 1254, and the whole town and its surrounding area achieved municipal independence in 1439, becoming the first town to be incorporated by Act of Parliament.
As the higher parts of the Plym estuary silted up, ships used the Cattewater moorings and the then tidal harbour at the Plym's mouth instead of Plympton. And so the name of the town Sutton slowly became Plymouth. The name Sutton still exists in the name of its old harbour and a parliamentary division.
In 1403, the town was briefly occupied and burnt by the French, especially the Bretons. The town was often the target of enemies across the English Channel, especially during the Hundred Years' War. There was a castle at the mouth of Sutton Pool, as well as barricades across the seafront on the Hoe, but all of these have long since been demolished or built over by later fortifications.
Plymouth Hoe is a stretch of greensward on low cliffs overlooking Plymouth Sound; this is where Sir Francis Drake supposedly completed his game of bowls before sailing to defeat the Spanish Armada. It also features in the legend of the ancient giants Gog and Magog.
During the 16th century, Plymouth was the home port for a number of successful maritime traders, among them William Hawkins, who made the first English expeditions to West Africa in the 1530s; and his son Sir John Hawkins, who led England's first foray into the slave trade.[3]
The port of Plymouth has seen the arrival and departure of many notable people. Catherine of Aragon and Pocahontas both arrived in England via the port in 1501 and 1616 respectively. It was from Plymouth that the Pilgrims finally left England for the New World in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. Napoleon Bonaparte was brought to Plymouth aboard HMS Bellerophon which remained in Plymouth Sound for two weeks before his exile to St Helena in 1815. And the surviving crew of the RMS Titanic disaster disembarked at Millbay docks on their return to England in 1912. On 28 May 1967 Sir Francis Chichester returned to Plymouth after the first single handed Clipper Route circumnavigation of the world and was greeted by an estimated crowd of a million spectators on the Hoe and every vantage point from Rame Head to Wembury.
On 14 December 1810, Plymouth was struck by the strongest tornado yet reported in the UK (as of August 2005), with a T8 rating on the TORRO scale, and a wind speed of 213 to 240 mph[citation needed].
Civil War
In the English Civil War Plymouth sided with the Parliamentarians against Charles I. During the siege of Plymouth, the town held out for almost four years until the defeat of the Royalists. There were various skirmishes and confrontations around and close to the city, including the battle of St Budeaux and the rout of Royalist cavalry along Lipson Ridge. Freedom Fields Park still commemorates the latter site. Construction of the Royal Citadel began in 1665 after the Restoration and was armed with cannon facing both out to sea and into the town, a reminder to residents not to oppose the Crown.
World War II
The city was extensively blitzed during the Second World War. Although the dockyards were the principal targets, civilian casualties were very high. The first bombs fell on the city on Saturday 6 July 1940 at Swilly, killing 3 people. The last attack came on 30 April 1944. 1,172 people were killed and 3,269 injured - these figures do not include the many service casualties.
The resident population fell from 220,000 at the outbreak of war to, at one point, 127,000. Many children were evacuated and those adults who could, fled. On any night that a raid was expected tens of thousands travelled into the countryside, usually onto the fringes of Dartmoor.
On the evening of 22 April 1941 during an attack on the central area, the communal air-raid shelter at Portland Square took a direct hit which killed 70 people. In the early 2000s, this was commemorated by the university which named a new building on the site after the incident, and also commissioned a local artist to create a commemorative piece.
During the blitz the two main shopping centres and nearly every civic building were destroyed, along with more than 20 schools and 40 churches. 3,754 houses were destroyed with a further 18,398 seriously damaged.[citation needed]
Amidst of the smoking ruins an headmistress nailed over the door of St Andrew's Church a wooden sign saying simply Resurgam (Latin for I shall rise again), indicating the wartime spirit, a gesture repeated at other devastated European churches. That entrance to the St Andrews is still referred to as the Resurgam door and a carved granite plaque is now permanently fixed there.[4]
Plymouth was one of the principal staging posts for the Normandy landings in June 1944.
Government
History
In 1914 the county boroughs of Plymouth and Devonport, and the urban district of East Stonehouse merged to form a single county borough of Plymouth. This was supported by the War Office, who were concerned that having three different local councils would complicate matters in time of war. Collectively they were referred to as "The Three Towns".[5] A provisional order was made on May 2, 1914, to come into effect in November.[6]
In 1928, Plymouth was granted city status.[7] The city's boundaries were extended in the mid-1930s and further expanded in 1967 to include the town of Plympton and the parish of Plymstock.
Plymouth lobbied for further boundary extensions throughout the post-war period, proposing to annex Saltash and Torpoint on the other side of the Tamar to the Local Government Boundary Commission. The 1971 Local Government White Paper proposed abolishing county boroughs, which would have left Plymouth, a town of 250,000 people, being administered from a council based at the smaller Exeter, on the other side of the county. This led to Plymouth lobbying for the creation of a Tamarside county, to include Plymouth, Torpoint, Saltash, and the rural hinterland.The campaign was not successful, and Plymouth ceased to be a county borough on April 1, 1974 with responsibility for education, social services, highways and libraries transferred to Devon County Council. All powers returned when the city become a unitary authority on April 1, 1998 under recommendations of the Banham Commission.
Councillors
The City of Plymouth is divided into 20 wards, 17 of which elect three councillors and the other three electing two councillors, making up a total council of 57. Councillors are also known as Members of the Council and usually stand for election as members of national political parties. Full local elections are held every four years with elections for one third of Council seats being held each intervening year; the total electorate for Plymouth is 184,956 as of December 2003. The local election of May 2006 resulted in a current political composition of 26 Labour and 31 Conservative councillors.
Lord Mayor
Council sessions have a Chairman and Vice-Chairman, who are entitled Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor respectively. The Lord Mayor also has a ceremonial role and historical regalia. The Leader of the Council has day to day power which is exercised as Chairman of the Cabinet and there is a leader of each political group. The present Lord Mayor is the 540th holder of the office since its establishment in 1439. In 1935 that the dignity of Lord Mayor was granted, previously the office was simply Mayor. The Lord Mayor's official residence is 3 Elliot Terrace, located on the Hoe. Once a home of Waldorf and Nancy Astor, it was given by Lady Astor to the City of Plymouth as an official residence for future Lord Mayors and is also used today for civic hospitality, as lodgings for visiting dignitaries and High Court judges but when vacant can also be hired for private functions.
Members of Parliament
In Parliament, Plymouth is represented by the three constituencies of Plymouth Devonport, Plymouth Sutton and Southwest Devon. As of the 2005 General Election the two former constituencies are held by Labour MPs Alison Seabeck and Linda Gilroy respectively with the latter held by Conservative MP Gary Streeter. The local MEP is Conservative Giles Chichester.
Legal
There are Magistrates, Crown and County Courts in the City, but no prisons; adult male prisoners from local courts go to the County Jail at Exeter, females to Eastwood Park well north of Bristol and youths to Ashfield at Pucklechurch by the M4. Plymouth City Police eventually became part of Devon and then Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. There are large police stations at Charles Cross and Crownhill (the Divisional HQ) and a growing number of police offices throughout the suburbs. The Naval Provost and other branches of the Service police together with the MOD Police and the British Transport Police regularly patrol the city. Plymouth was one of the first cities to introduce a large force of Police Community Support Officers. The City is the base for one of the region's Crown Prosecution Service divisional offices.
Retail
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Plymouth has a large, entirely post-war, shopping area in the city centre. Most of the shops had been destroyed in The Blitz and those that remained were cleared to enable a huge zoned reconstruction. As the new buildings were completed shops returned from their temporary wartime premises and throughout the 1950s and 60s the city boasted one of the largest and modern shopping centres in the west of England. There was substantial pedestrianisation, more car parks, and a pannier market at the west end of the zone inside a now-listed 1950s building.
Competition from Exeter and even Bristol, led local businesses and the council to press for changes, the first of which was the 1970s redevelopment of Eastlake Street and western end of Ebrington Street to create a large spiral car park and a self-contained shopping centre containing C&A and various smaller traders. Within a dozen years C&A had ceased trading in the UK and the shopping area looked dated while the car park suffered from structural problems. In 1986 a new shopping mall, the Armada Centre was opened in the north west corner of the retail zone.
Meanwhile a major out-of-centre shopping mall was being built at Cribbs Causeway near Bristol, Exeter was considering the redevelopment of some of its own dated post-war shops, and towns and cities nationally were seeing retail parks springing up in suburban and semi-rural sites. Nationally, but particularly in the south-west, cities and larger towns began jostling competitively to entice modern retail icons such as John Lewis and Ikea in order to sustain claims to being the principal regional shopping centre.
Plymouth was seeking to rebrand itself with the Plymouth 2020 vision (see below), the expansion of the University, and the growing residential, hotel and office development close to the central area. 1980s plans for a mini-mall on the Eastlake site stumbled, but were resurrected at the beginning of the new century, opening as Drake Circus Shopping Centre in October 2006. Within less than a year Exeter followed suit with its new Princesshay. John Lewis and Ikea have yet to venture west of Bristol.
The council has encouraged cafés to create outdoor eating areas; and the clearing of a large public area in Armada Way has enabled farmers' markets and other street markets as well as exhibitions, entertainments and festivals.The photograph above right gives a fair impression of the character, aesthetic and feel of the retail area.
Transport
Road
Plymouth has no motorway links but the national network is accessible via the A38 dual-carriageway Devon Expressway to the M5 motorway which starts about 40 miles (64.4 km), east near Exeter. The A38 Parkway, runs east west across the geographical centre of the city. The city links to Cornwall via the Torpoint Ferry across the Hamoaze, and via the Tamar Bridge from the A38 Parkway to Saltash.
There are bus and cycle lanes on many arterial roads and in the city centre.There is a large fleet of hackney carriages and private hire taxis. There is a persistent gridlock problem during rush hours and limited but expensive parking. A Congestion Charge was ruled out by the main parties at the last council elections.[citation needed]
Plymouth Citybus provides bus services to suburban areas of the city and First Group provides other services within the city (including park and ride) and in the surrounding area. Stagecoach Devon provides services to Exeter and Paignton, and Western Greyhound provides services to Liskeard and Newquay. From the Bretonside Bus station located near to Drake Circus, National Express and other operators run long distance coach services to London and many parts of the UK.
Ferries
Apart from the Torpoint Ferry mentioned above, a regular international ferry service provided by Brittany Ferries operates from Millbay taking cars and foot passengers directly to Roscoff, Brittany and Santander, Spain. The ferry berth in Millbay was lengthened to accommodate Brittany Ferries largest vessel, Pont-Aven and there is a plan to transform the harbour into a more versatile port to accommodate some small cruise liners[citation needed]. Currently passengers are shuttled in tenders to and from large liners that occasionally enter the Sound. Currently the Torpoint Ferry runs a three ferry service during day hours. At 18:00 it changes to two ferries then at half nine it goes down to one. You only pay if you are going into Plymouth, and it is one pound if you do not have a Ferry Tag. Currently the books are no longer sold.
There is a passenger ferry between Stonehouse and the Cornish hamlet of Cremyll and a water-bus from the Mayflower Steps to Mount Batten.
Air travel
Plymouth City Airport is a small airfield located four miles (6 km) north of the city centre, just off the A386 road to Tavistock. Formerly a regional base for British Airways and then of Welsh and Irish carriers it is now only used by Plymouth firm Air Southwest who operate short flights to destinations within the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands. Although a few small private jets have used the limited runway, any expansion or relocation of the airport to provide flights to continental Europe and beyond is, as of 2007, a controversial issue in the city. Due to the airport's suburban location further runway expansion is impossible. On 20 September 2007 Plymouth Airport operators revealed that a large part of the present airport land may be sold for residential purposes[8]. The city council assets manager cabinet member has called for a review as to whether the city wants or still needs an airport[citation needed]. Plymouth Airport does not have the technology to land aircraft in fog and redirection to Newquay Airport is the usual consequence. Exeter International Airport is about 40 minutes drive away.
Railways
Plymouth railway station offers direct travel by First Great Western to stations in Cornwall and to London Paddington (including the Night Riviera sleeper service). Other services are operated by CrossCountry to Birmingham New Street, the North of England, and Scotland; also by South West Trains to London Waterloo. A few trains of both of these operators are extended to and from Penzance.
Railway stations served by local trains are: Devonport, Dockyard, Keyham, St Budeaux Victoria Road, and St Budeaux Ferry Road. Trains serving these stations run on the Tamar Valley Line to Gunnislake and on the Cornish Main Line to Saltash, St Germans, then stations to Penzance or Newquay. There is also a Park and Ride station at Ivybridge, 16 km eastwards.
The Plym Valley Railway is a heritage railway located at Marsh Mills near Plymouth and operates steam and diesel heritage trains on many Sundays throughout the year.
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Plymouth at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of Great British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | Regional Gross Value Added1 | Agriculture² | Industry³ | Services4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 2,561 | 6 | 1,027 | 1,528 |
| 2000 | 2,676 | 1 | 795 | 1,880 |
| 2003 | 3,098 | 1 | 899 | 2,198 |
|
Footnotes 1Components may not sum to totals due to rounding ²includes hunting and forestry ³includes energy and construction 4includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured | ||||
The economy of Plymouth has traditionally been linked to its coastal location based around fishing and the armed services, in particular the Navy and Devonport Dockyard. The recent decline of these industries has seen a greater diversification towards a service based economy based on healthcare, food and drink, chewing gum and call centres with electronics, advanced engineering and boat building still maintaining a prime role. The decline of heavy industries has had a negative effect on the city's employment figures. In the past eight years employment has risen 11%; however, employment and wages still remain significantly below the national average.Thirty thousand university students together with teaching and support staff now make higher education a powerful influence.
In terms of retail Plymouth is ranked second in the South West and 29th nationally. As the largest regional city of Devon and Cornwall, Plymouth has a potential catchment area of over 720,000 people with an annual high street expenditure of over £600 million being spent in the city. An annual influx of 11.8 million tourists is another major contributor to the local economy. The city is also one of a handful of British cities to trial the new Business Improvement District initiative.
Education
University
The University of Plymouth [1] is the largest university in south western England (and the fourth largest in the UK) with well over 30,000 students, almost 3,000 staff and an annual income of around £110 million. Founded as a college of technology and then becoming a polytechnic it also absorbed the School of Maritime Studies.
The traditional teaching strengths were in marine, maritime studies and shipping together with most forms of technology but as the university emerged out of the polytechnic traditions it became known nationally for novelty courses pejoratively referred to as 'surfing studies' but over the last few years the university has added stature and facilities for the arts and humanities generally. Despite its size and turnover it remains outside the Golden Triangle, Russell and 1994 groups of world ranking British universities.
The University College of St Mark and St John [2](Marjon), which specialises in teacher training, is out of the centre close to Plymouth City Airport.
Colleges
Plymouth has one of the largest Further Education Colleges in the country providing courses from the most basic to Foundation Degrees, it enrols more than 20,000 students a year[citation needed]. City College Plymouth [3](formerly called Plymouth College of Further Education) spread across six sites is a successful college with many national awards for teaching.
The Plymouth College of Art and Design [4] (referred to as PCAD) is located at Charles Cross and offers a wide selection of innovative and traditional courses.
State Schools
Consistently high performing state schools in Plymouth are Devonport High School for Boys, Devonport High School for Girls and Plymouth High School for Girls, three selective Grammar Schools with a reputation for academic excellence. Admission to these schools requires a high pass in the 11 plus examination, although controversially application is also open to children from outside the city in nearby south east Cornwall and south Devon.[citation needed]
There are also the comprehensive schools that specialise in selected subjects; Plymstock School is a Specialist Sports College, Hele's School a Specialist Language College, Ridgeway School specialises in Science and Coombe Dean School, and Stoke Damerel specialise in Mathematics and Computing. Sir John Hunt Community Sports College, located in Whitleigh, is also a specialist sports college. Of the high performing schools mentioned before, Plymouth High School for Girls is a Specialist Technology College, Devonport High School for Girls a Specialist Language College, whilst Devonport High School for Boys has two specialisms - the first in Engineering and their second also as a Specialist Language College.
Notre Dame RC School, situated near to Derriford Hospital, is an all girls school. It is twinned with the nearby boys school, St. Boniface.
Tamarside Community College, located in Kings Tamerton is a specialised Technology College. John Kitto Community College, located in Pennycross is a specialist Business and Enterprise College. Estover Community College is a specialist arts college. Eggbuckland Community College is a specialist technology college with large sports facilities. The school may also have one of the largest campus areas in the region.[citation needed]. Stoke Damerel is another community college specialising in mathematics and computing and also Parkside Community College specialising in Business Studies and Computing.
There is a large variety of state primary schools throughout the city.
Independent Schools
King's School is a Christian independent school in Hartley. There are larger and traditional public schools in other parts of Devon.
Plymouth's oldest surviving school, St Dunstan's Abbey, an Anglican girls' public school, for more than a hundred and fifty years sited in North Road West moved in the 1990s to the old Naval Hospital site, now called the Millfields, but, began to fade soon after the millennium only to be absorbed by Plymouth College based at Mutley which acquired the Millfields site to relocate its own preparatory school and kindergarten.
Language Schools
The city has a number of private language schools mostly teaching children and young people who come by ferry from France and Spain to learn English as a Foreign Language.
Green space
Plymouth has a number of public parks, the largest of which is Central Park. Other sizeable green spaces include Victoria Park, Freedom Fields Park, Alexandra Park, Keyham, Beaumont Park, Tothill, Greenbank Park, Blockhouse Park, Devonport Park, Widey Woods, and significantly, the Hoe.
Religion
There are still many Christian churches in the city. The senior Anglican church is St Andrews in Royal Parade which hosts the civic services. There is a Victorian Catholic cathedral in Wyndham Street, Stonehouse. There are a number of Methodist churches. There is a Quaker Meeting House on Mutley Plain. The small Jewish community has an eighteenth century synagogue and adjacent in the city centre post-war ecclesiastical zone are modern Baptist and Unitarian churches. The Greek Orthodox community have converted an old church in West Hoe for their observances. Pentecostals, Christadelphians and Jehovah's Witnesses have their own churches. There is a Muslim community have a mosque at the Islamic Centre in North Road East. The Bahá'í have a meeting place at Dale Road, Mutley and the Buddhists in St Judes. There is also a 'church' of Scientology in Beaumont Road.
Diversity
As a major naval and military base during imperialist adventures, exploration and expansion, historically the city has attracted settlement from overseas, particularly of Maltese, Chinese and Greek Cypriots. During the cholera outbreak of the 1830s there was an Irish quarter in the Eldad Hill area near the present Victorian catholic cathedral, which was noted as one of the poorest areas of the city, and among the victims were Jews from Eastern Europe.
Until the 1990s it was very unusual to hear a foreign language or see a non-white face in the city but during as little as a dozen or so years the fast expansion of the university, the increased use of the cross-channel ferries and the influx of economic migrants particularly from Poland and of refugees particularly Kurds have brought a cosmopolitan feel, particularly to the central areas. There has been a longer established Chinese community serving predominantly the catering trade and a distinct community of Asians who have been equally successful. There is an annual Respect festival in the Guildhall. Although there was an increasing number of racially aggravated public order and assault offences, there does not seem to be a significant problem or evidence of resentment towards first or second generation immigrants. The Poles have opened two shops selling specifically Polish goods and there are long established speciality shops selling ingredients for many international styles of cooking.
The Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender community has become more visible over the last twenty years and there are two or three gay-friendly or specialist pubs together with one large club but an attempt to develop part of the Bretonside end of Exeter Street as a gay village did not evolve as hoped. There is a Plymouth Pride festival annually in the city centre. Plymouth does not have a reputation for homophobia. The huge number of students out and about in pubs, clubs and meeting places reinforce relaxed and tolerant attitudes.
Tourism
The Plymouth tourist office markets the city under the slogan "Spirit of Discovery"[9], a reference to the British seafarers who have sailed from Plymouth to uncharted areas of the world. The historical connections, especially those related to Francis Drake, and the sailing of the Mayflower from the Mayflower Steps, together with the view from the Hoe ensure that many visit the historic Barbican and seafront areas. Plymouth has no pleasure beaches, but Tinside Pool, a large lido that was restored in 2003, is at the foot of the Hoe. The city has much holiday, self-catering and bed and breakfast accommodation, particularly in the Citadel Road East area, close to the seafront. Several hotel chains have recently opened new builds in various parts of the city.
Arts and culture
Many outdoor events and festivals are held in Plymouth including the British Fireworks Championships and Music of the Night, an outdoor production held every two years in The Royal Citadel[10] involving the 29th Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, The Royal Artillery Band, the band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines and hundreds of local amateur performers. The Plymouth Morris Men perform throughout the year at many events and venues.
Theatres and cinemas
The largest is the 1982 Theatre Royal which is a major provincial producing theatre and it also incorporates an integral studio theatre, The Drum. The Theatre Royal recently opened its architectural prize-winning Production and Education Centre, known as TR2, on the reclaimed waterfront site at Cattedown.[11].
On the Barbican is the Barbican Theatre[5]. The University has two well-equipped theatres within the new Roland Levinsky Arts Building. Amateur dramatic societies and schools of dance regularly perform at the Athenaeum Theatre, Devonport Playhouse, and the Globe Theatre in the Royal Marine barracks.
The Plymouth Pavilions opened in 1991, and stages regular music concerts from rock and pop to ballet, and other live events.
Plymouth Music Accord[6] is a charity that promotes classical music and consists of many local amateur and professional orchestras and choirs. Peninsula Arts[7] is the public arts interface between the University and local people.
There is a large multiplex cinema at the Barbican Leisure Centre and a three-screen cinema in Derry's Cross.In Looe Street the Plymouth Arts Centre has a two screen cinema specialising in art house and foreign films while the Roland Levinsky arts building at the university has a film centre showing a catholic range of films.
Museums, art galleries and historic buildings
The Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery in Drake Circus, near the shopping mall, has collections of fine and decorative arts, natural history and human history.
The Plymouth Arts Centre [8] is located near the Barbican, and regularly offers visiting displays of work by a wide range of local, British and international artists such as Beryl Cook, Richard Deacon, Andy Goldsworthy and Sir Terry Frost. As well as promoting visual arts, many independent art house and foreign films are shown.
A converted church on North Hill, now the Sherwell Centre and part of the university, hosts regular exhibitions, concerts, recitals, lectures and other public events. There are smaller and privately owned retail galleries on The Barbican.
Also in Plymouth are the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office; Smeaton's Tower; the Elizabethan House and Merchants House in The Barbican. Plymouth is home to the National Marine Aquarium. The Ashkenazi synagogue, in Catherine Street, was built in 1762.
Nightlife
A centre of Plymouth's nightlife for over a century has been the once infamous Union Street. Previously lined with numerous music halls and cinemas, the street is now run down and home to a decreasing number of bars, clubs and casinos. Union Street retains a reputation for unruly drunken behaviour but can still host a lively night out. Although most clubs play commercial dance and R&B, there are some which play other, less popular genres. Other clubs and bars are at the Barbican Leisure Park and on Lockyer Street.There are a number of bars with live music. Mutley Plain has many bars due to the increase of student population in the city.
National fears about public disorder and excessive drinking have locally resulted in the making of many large "dispersal areas" and designated "no drinking areas", giving police the power to disperse groups of two or more and seize and dispose of any alcohol being carried or drunk in public spaces.
Sport
Plymouth Argyle Football Club, [9] play professional football in the English Football League's Championship division. The club is based at the Home Park stadium in Central Park. Plymouth United F.C. was formerly the town's other team.
The Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Club [10] play their home games at the Brickfields in the National League Division One. There are also many junior rugby union clubs playing in regional, Devon and Plymouth Combination leagues. Adjacent to the new Brickfields rugby stadium is the Plymouth athletics track. The annual Plymouth half marathon [11] starts and ends on The Hoe.
The Plymouth Rugby League Football Club play in the Rugby League Conference South West Division. Plymouth is also home to two American Football teams, the Plymouth Blitz and the Plymouth Admirals who compete in the British American Football League.
Kularoos Plymouth Raiders play their home games at the Plymouth Pavilions. They are currently one of the best teams in the British Basketball League. Among the several hockey clubs in the city is Plymouth Marjon Hockey Club [12], one of the West of England's clubs in field hockey which is based at The College of St. Mark and St. John, along with an ice hockey team at the Plymouth Pavillions.Other prominent clubs include OPMs[13] and PGSOB. Plymouth and District Netball League [14] is one of the biggest and most competitive in the country with junior and senior sections.Lacrosse is also enjoying a revival particularly among girls.
Bowls is legendarily popular and there are still many public and club greens. Similarly there are many public and private squash courts. Tennis is played in many clubs; there are indoor tennis courts at Derriford and Ivybridge and outdoor public courts spread across the city including at St Budeaux, West Hoe and Plymstock. Plymouth College [15] has several Fives (hand ball) courts. For skateboarders there is an outdoor concrete skate park at Central Park Youth Park [16].
Plymouth Cricket Club [17] has teams at all levels and there are other popular clubs at Plympton and Plymstock.There is a golf club at Staddon Heights [18] overlooking Plymouth Sound and a 9 hole pitch and putt course in Central Park. There is a large commercial driving range near Elburton.
There is major international ocean yacht racing organised from the Royal Western Yacht Club [19] at Queen Anne Battery and a thriving coastal and cross channel passage racing calendar. The long established Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club has its clubhouse perched on the Hoe foreshore and there are several other thriving sailing clubs on the rivers Plym, Tamar and Yealm. Several of these provide members and visitors with weekly 'round the cans' divisional weeknight racing in Plymouth Sound. There are facilities for other watersports including water-skiing, windsurfing and diving and there is a well-used watersports centre at Turnchapel. There are rowing clubs on both rivers and a growing interest in gig racing. In 2006 after three years competitive inshore power boat racing, Plymouth lost the event to the Solent.
Plymouth Leander [20] and Port of Plymouth are successful swimming clubs; there are several indoor and outdoor public pools. There are sea-angling options from boats based on the Barbican and a large number of Plymothians fish from hundreds of spots around the Sound and along the rivers.
The Plymouth Devils speedway team races at St Boniface arena, Marsh Mills. Currently in the Conference League. The first track in Plymouth was located at the greyhound stadium in the Pennycross area and this operated both sides of WWII. The site was redeveloped for a school. The Plymouth-Banjul Challenge is an annual car rally for charity, similar to the more famous Dakar Rally.
There are small bore rifle shooting ranges at Plymouth College and the University of Plymouth. Plymouth Judo Club[21] is one of the oldest in the southwest and there several other martial arts clubs in the city. Plymouth Croquet Club is at Hartley and there is another club at Durnford Street.
Also in Plymouth there is the Plymouth Mariners Baseball Club [22] , which has its baseball diamonds and fields situated at Wilson's Field in the grounds of Central Park. There is currently a youth team, as well a developing adult team.
Media
Plymouth is the headquarters and regional television centre of BBC South West, whose studios are located in the Mannamead area north of the city centre but will shortly transfer to purpose built premises on Sutton Harbour. There is a Carlton television studio at Langage although the company will shortly retreat to Bristol. A new Plymouth city digital tv station 'One Plymouth' is planned.
The city's main commercial radio station is Plymouth Gold and its sister station 97 FM Plymouth Sound based together in De La Hay Ave just off Central Park.
The regional stations include BBC Radio Devon, BBC Radio Cornwall, South Hams Radio and Pirate FM. The BBC provide a specific Plymouth edition of BBC Radio Devon at breakfast time.
The main regional newspaper is the Western Morning News, whose local publishing and print centre at Derriford were designed by architect Nicholas Grimshaw. The local city paper, from the same publisher, the right wing Northcliffe Media group, at the same print centre, is the Plymouth 'Herald' (Formerly The Western Evening Herald).There is an unrelated local weekend paper The Western Sunday Independent and several, predominantly advertising, light news sheets spread across the suburbs.
An independent, "alternative" podcast for the city launched in 2006 - Plymcast. It features local musicians and local comedy and entertainment content.
Plymouth 2020
Plymouth is currently undertaking a project of urban redevelopment, the largest since the city was rebuilt after the Second World War. The 'Vision for Plymouth' launched by the architect David Mackay, backed by Plymouth City Council is set to see areas of the city centre demolished, redesigned and rebuilt by the year 2020.
The old Drake Circus shopping centre and Charles Cross car park were demolished in 2004 and have been replaced by the latest Drake Circus Shopping Centre, which opened in October 2006[12].
The Civic Centre municipal office building in Armada Way became a listed building in June 2007 because of its quality and period features[13] but has become the centre of a local controversy as the council disagrees[14] and seeks to demolish it and sell the site. In September 2007 the city council announced its application to demolish but English Heritage has stated that such applications very rarely succeed.
As of 2007, the former Ballard Leisure Centre is being replaced with residential and office space along with a project involving the future demolition of the Bretonside bus station to build a new civic complex. A nine-storey Jury's Inn hotel has opened near Charles Church. In Drake Circus the new Roland Levinsky Building, part of Plymouth University recently opened. Other plans include the demolition of the Plymouth Pavilions entertainment arena to create a canal 'boulevard' linking Millbay to the city centre. Millbay is also to be regenerated with mixed residential, retail and office space alongside ferry harbour facilities. A lot of this development is controversial, and many residents are beginning to question the pace and nature of change.[citation needed]
Twinning
The twin cities of Plymouth are:
Brest, Brittany, France (twinned 1963)
Gdynia, Poland (twinned 1976)
Novorossiysk, Russia (twinned 1990)
San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain (twinned 1990)
Template:USCity, United States (twinned 2001)
Plymouth also maintains a link with:
Military and Naval
Plymouth is and has for three hundred years been a garrison town. It is presently home to 42 Commando Royal Marines[23] and 29 commando regiment royal artillery[24]. Their efforts during the Falklands War were notable [25]. It also had a very strong connection with the Royal Navy and has been home to many Naval Establishments[26].
See also
References
- ^ Royal Navy HMNB Devonport website. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ Barry Cunliffe (2004). Britain and the Continent: Networks of Interaction. In A Companion to Roman Britain, ed. Malcolm Todd. Blackwell Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 0-631-21823-8. Google Book Search. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Black Presence exhibition at The National Archives. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Plymouth City Council website: Places of Worship. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Three Towns Amalgamation. The Times February 9, 1914.
- ^ Union of Plymouth and Devonport. The Times. May 4, 1914.
- ^ The City of Plymouth. The Times. October 18, 1928.
- ^ Airport land viewed for housing: BBC News. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Plymouth City Council tourism website. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ Royal Navy announcement of Music of the Night 2006. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ TR2 is Britain's "Building of the Year", BBC website. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ Controversy over £200 m shops plan: BBC News. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
- ^ 'Hugely ugly' council skyscraper awarded listed building status: 24dash.com. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- ^ 10 reasons why the Council feels the Civic Centre should not be listed: Plymouth City Council website. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
- Dunning, Martin (2001). Around Plymouth. Frith Book Co Ltd
- Gill, Crispin (1993). Plymouth: A New History. Devon Books
- Robinson, Chris (2004). Plymouth Then & Now. Plymouth Prints
- Casley, Nicholas (1997). The Medieval Incorporation of Plymouth and a Survey of the Borough's Bounds. Old Plymouth Society.
- Barbican Theatre
- Drake Circus
- Plymouth City Council
- The Plymouth 2020 Partnership
- Plymouth Arts Centre
- Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery
External links
- history
- Official Plymouth Tourist Information
- Unofficial Plymouth site
- Information about Port of Plymouth
- Local history society
- Aerial photographs of Plymouth
- Plymouths around the world
- Steve and Karen Johnson's collection of historical photos, the majority of which are concerned with Plymouth and its surrounding environs
